Tsunaimi Madness, Day after; beauty

Aloha from the land of hyped up non-natural disasters.

So Saturday afternoon, we discovered that Abba had been incorrect regarding just.a.big.family not all fitting into a Scion Xb. Abba had walked to the local mall with two big ones and a 3 year old. This was a mile walk in the blazing sun in the middle of the day (perhaps the reader does not feel the sympathy they ought to at this point in the narrative if they happen to be looking outside at their local weather). Anyway, the munchkin may have had flushed cheeks but she was a trooper.

The pedestrians hooked up with Eema at the air-conditioned mall. She had driven there earlier. Regarding getting back to base, the decision was made just to have Abba walk back while 7 piled into the Scion. Photo one is taken with Abba out of the car. Somehow Abba managed to get in the front seat and the kiddos merely squeezed a little tighter in the back.

Nice and comfy

"charlie" wants more space 

This ended up being an important (albeit fruitless) exercise for later in the night.

Skip forward many hours to a time when when little Charlie was fast asleep as was little Gertie. Around 8:00 p.m. we heard an odd knock on the door. Upon opening the door, the security guard informed us that the sirens outside were indicating that a tsunami was on the way.  Well, with a family of teenage and soon to be teenage girls, that can be very exciting news let me tell you. After much excitement, and waking up two children, we headed up to the 4th floor and waited for a few minutes. Abba decided to check on his phone what was up. It was discovered that the impact time was going to be 10:28 pm. Plenty of time to get out of Dodge. Abba suggested just staying on premises (which is ocean side) while the majority wanted to head to high ground. Abba relented and eight, yes that is 8, people crammed into the scion and headed for high ground. Eery sirens sounded the warning even on the hillsides.

Charlie and Gertie were now wide awake and very restless. What followed can be summarized as two hours of unpleasantries with very tired, but awake kids, and cranky adults. Exhausted, the family returned to the beachside building around 11:30 pm (before  the all-clear) and fell fast asleep in their ground-floor unit. Charlie, as usual, awoke before 5:00 a.m. to start a new day

Hawaii's news crews are to "tsunami preparedness" like Seattle news crews are to "snow storms" where 1/2" of snow blows through in the foothills. We were expecting 3'-6' waves with mega-power to destroy. What we got was 1.5' swells and avery disrupted sleep.


Sunday afternoon, Abba, Ella, and Henny went to snorkel or fish near Makapu'u. Unfortunately, the weather changed and was not conducive to fishing or snorkeling. The beauty remained constant :-)

Enjoy November

weekend of 10/18,19/2012 more good times

Ahhh, it was a nice weekend. Our new-found shabbott service moved from Honolulu to the Waianae Coast, too far to drive with half the family. We missed out but had a semi-relaxing time all the same.

Abba took Eema and the three youngest on a munchkin sized adventure that Eema really enjoyed. It was a stretch for her at the Makapu'u lookout though cause the thought of one of the little ones randomly climbing a three foot high stone wall, running 20 feet and thrusting themselves over the cliffs was sometimes on her mind. You just never know what might happen on an adventure at a very popular tourist stop.

We headed to some fun tide pools near Sandy's beach where #5 was somewhat skittish with the nearby waves and decided to move more quickly than her balance allowed. She really knows how to turn a simple activity into an adventure.......things are always more fun when you are wet.

Lastly we headed to a research pier (no one fell off) and saw some needle fish. All in all we had a nice little Adventure with the little ones. (the big ones walked to the mall)

Charotte with a hermit crab at the tide pools

we only saw a few fishies cause people legally net them

at Makapu'u looking at rim islands

at the research pier

 On Sunday, after church Abba took the 4 oldest to the 2nd most popular hike on the island, Manoa Falls? can you guess the most popular hike? Yes, it is very near Waikiki.

The hike is only 0.9 mile one way. We decided to leave the trail which was fairly pedestrian except for the mud, and head up the raging river, slight exaggeration. It was more like a slight stream. We caught crawdads and the mosquitos caught us.

friendly crawdad

Over the trail

the stream was more fun than the trail

these critters aren't found on the trail

starting to get a little muddy

the falls

Just Chillin. Life is good

Thought I would share some random pix from around the house.

Sister helping drink blueberry something 

Tastes a lot better when you have the cup by yourself

A happy 3 year old "reading"

Shabbot at the beach

and at the pool

The following video is at a nearby hotel at sunset. The birds love this particular tree. One just has to be mindful when standing below.

October 19th Week in Review

Abba here. I see that it has been a little while so I thought I could do a little catch up.

Work is sooooo slow, just continuing to plant seeds,  so lets move on to the family.

Little "Charlie" loves any sand hill he can find. he went up and down this one several times before we could move on down the beach.

Apart from enjoying walks on the beach, the family also enjoys being in and on the water. Abba has learned that paddling against the wind is very good exercise. The wind and the flow of the current consistently go one direction. Paddling the other way can be quite a challenge.

Today we decided to brave Koko crater one more time. The hope was to catch a beautiful sunset from haigh above it all. That sounded like a good plan. If only we had left our residence at 5:00 pm instead of 5:40 pm. It would have been perfect. As it was, we had a nice sunset from about one third of the way up. Note to any visitors to the islands; twilight does not last very long here, as we knew in theory but experienced in reality......... Remember, the difference between an "activity" and an "adventure" is that  you don't really know the outcome of an adventure.

 this time we brought "Charlotte". Of course she was the first one to the top just ahead of Abba. We had to (got to) wait for the older three for 10-15 minutes before they made their way up in the dark.

read the whole sign good warnings

started a little late around 6:00 pm base of stairs

"charlotte" makes it first to the top with Abba (actually darker than appears)

rest of crew makes it up eventually

really dark on the way down

Thankfully, Abba was bright enough (pun intended) to bring some headlamps for the slow trek down in the dark. Nobody twisted an ankle or went slipping down the side of the crater.


We have been enjoying Shabbot at little congregation in Waikiki but the service is moving to Waianae this week. Not sure if we are willing to drive that far in two shifts.cause "just a big family" can't all fit in a Scion Xb.  Thankfully, we are also enjoying New Hope Oahu at Manoa on Sundays.

We will need to order a battery charger for the "real" camera as somehow it disappeared in the Washington house.

Shabbot Shalom to all and lila tov.

Koko Crater

Well, you may have guessed that we survived the climb up the crater. I think that I was as hot as if the crater was still active. Here is the story in brief summary.

Sunday night, prior to the planned hike, I was reminded of Passover, not Sukkoth. Some time after I was sound asleep but before midnight, Charlie awoke me with angry "yellming". official definition of "yellming": a variegated mix of screaming and yelling with remarkable consistency only broken by short moments to catch one's breath". Charlie has fallen into the habit (as well as one other) of nursing several times a night. He used to sleep almost 11 hours straight in Seattle. Things have changed here on island. Anyway, this night Eema had had enough. On all other nights, she nurses seemingly at will but this night was different. It was a "special" night. On all other nights, I get interrupted sleep but at least I get sleep. On all other nights, I don't intend on getting up at 4:30 a.m. to do a very difficult hike. So, there I am, being "yellmed" at and I admit, it was a very good, thing that I did not have spray bottle next to the bed or my little blue eyed boy would have been more miserable than he already was. I even restrained myself from throwing pillows. I thought myself rather saintly at the time for such self control but the overriding thought in my mind at the time was truly: "why on this night?" Eventually I was fully awake and simply did not care anymore.

I woke the girls around 5:00 am and we headed out what seemed like much later for the 15 minute drive to the crater. We started up the trail around 6:00 am  in the barely visible light before dawn. Some intrepid hikers were already on their way down. Excitement led us forward. The trail (an old railroad line) led straight up the side of the crater. The top was not too far distant even from the beginning. I thought "piece of cake".................Oh you foolish soul!

this is not a piece of cake

After several breaks in the first 15 minutes (seriously) the girls needed a longer break than Abba could handle. he left them by wayside and headed up on his own. (by the way, its a very safe place with loads of fellow hikers even early in the morning) Eventually Abba made it to the top. gorgeous 360 degree views.

Mr. "tomato face" survived

I (returning to first person) was sorry the girls couldn't make it to be with me and share the experience, but glad they did not suffer the last miserable, steep section. I headed back down about 1/3 of the way when I spied the girls on their way up. They were determined to make it. I turned and headed warily back up with them. Surprisingly, it hurt less the second time up than the first. My heart had also had a nice break at the top for 10 minutes.

The girls had a nice clip going the rest of the way up (rest is really a strange word to use here). We enjoyed the views and relished the victory over our struggle.

we were exhilerated

Coming down the "steps" was less difficult than expected, but we took care not to stumble. The consequences would not have been good.

on the way down

same place looking up

I look forward to my next summit experience.

week ending 10/7/12

Shalom friends

Abba here. We had a wonderful end to a nice weekend today. (mostly) The weather was beautiful today and we made the most of it at the beach. As you will see below. Gertie was the star of the photos today.

We acquired an "ook" (ukulele) early in the week and I have been blessed by the music in the home. We bought two song books on Friday. One has 25 popular worship songs and the other a Taylor Swift songbook. Can you guess which songs I hear all day? By the way, We are never, ever, ever getting back together. No....... not ever, ever. Etc.. Etc... Etc... I do mean like ever Etc...

On Shabbot, Emma went to service with Sarah. Emma thought it was a wonderful service, Sarah was bored out of her mind. She was the only kid there and the service is definitely not geared to children of any age. After Mom returned home, Dad took kids #1 and #2 (can you believe I don't even know their names by now) to the Torah study. Dad enjoyed asking questions part as and kid #1 enjoyed the format. Kid #2 was pretty bored. Interesting thing that Abba noticed: when Jacob blesses his children before his death, not all the blessings were so good, particularly to Simeon and Levi. When Moses blesses the tribes, in this portion, the blessings are pretty good unless you happen to be from the tribe of Simeon. He is left out altogether. Interesting. The rabbi had a decent answer but somewhat conjecture in Abba's mind.

This morning, I (Abba) took all the girls to New Hope Oahu, a "christian" church. did you know that a Scion Xb can seat six comfortably even with a car seat. (if you happen to be one of the two people in the front that is) The older girls enjoyed the youth meeting and I appreciated the simplicity of the message; just basic yet foundational truth. Having Gertie next to me in the big people service proved a patience tester. Why didn't I remember that from the week before which was exactly the same thing. Her older sister, Charlotte, did very well.

Upon returning back "home" we headed to the beach. Good times. Here are a few pix of the day.

Sadly, after a great time at the beach, it was later discovered that Sarah took out her retainer at the beach (big No No) and put it in the beach bag. No retainer was in the bag later in the evening. Chaos ensued. Thankfully, I, being the involved father, was busy relaxing on the bed reading a book like any good dad would when the chaos began. Emma put the kaibosh (one of my favorite words) on the situation.
Here is when I was personally blessed. Emma and Sarah walked down to the beach to look for the retainer. I am thinking "good luck". Imagine my surprise when they came back 8 minutes later with the retainer in hand. apparently, it dropped right in the middle of the path when perhaps Emma was looking for keys. Awesome. Thank you God!

Tomorrow, Dad, #1 and #2, whatever their names are, (I admit, i didn't read the darned book) are going to attempt to do Koko Crater. it's only One Thousand steps of railroad ties straight up the side of the crater. I hear that those who survive really enjoy the view. We will keep you posted with awesome pictures, or not!

Last few days...

Hey guys!
This is Ella again. Sadly we only have a few photos of these past days because it turns out we left the camera's charger back at home.      :(    Oh well, we'll just have to use IPod's and other cameras.

 This last Saturday we attended a Messianic Congregation of about twenty including us. There weren't any kids, but I think we were a blessing to them. The service was not what we're used to, with much more Jewish songs and prayers, but it was still interesting.

 On Sunday we (Only Abba, Henny, Sara, Charlotte, Gertie, and I went, because it was just during Charlie's nap-time) went to a christian church (New Hope Oahu) which was a much different experience than the day before. The people were very friendly, the Youth of the church did the worship, and the message was great. It seemed to me that there was a bunch of different kinds of people there, even more than Seattle. Afterwards there was a pot-luck, and it was interesting going through food line considering 75% of it had pork in it.

 We also had to return the rental car on Sunday and picked the Scion Xb, so now our whole family can't drive anywhere as a whole family.

Monday was the first day of Sukkot, a day of rest. (Which is surprisingly hard to take when a freshman even if my school is online.) Abba bought a 9' 6" paddle-board, which, according to some of our family that we skyped, is kinda small We had a bunch of fun on it anyway! It is rather hard to balance, but Abba, Ella and Henny figured it out. Sara had a harder time, but she eventually was able to paddle when on her knees.

Sara and Gertie

Charlie enjoying unwrapping the paddle-board

 

Yesterday, Abba, Henny, Sara, Charlotte, and I went to a Sukkot celebration with multiple messianic congregations from around the Island. It was rather enjoyable. It did make me miss BT a bit though. The gathering wasn't as big with about thirty people total at an outdoor campground. 

 Today we took some great photos of us paddle-boarding and having fun on the beach, maybe we will post them when we get a charger for the camera.  :)  Charlie was adorable chasing the birds across the whole beach. 

 So now we're just chilling and watching our favorite Penguins of Madagascar episodes. Miss all you guys and thank you for the comments! 

Ella